Democrats Dreaming of a Trump Recession Need to Wake Up
Democrats dreaming of a successful Trump impeachment need to do likewise.
If Democrats are going to beat Donald Trump, once and for all, they are going to have to do it on the campaign trail, at the ballot box, and at the kitchen table.
Democrats need to abandon, at once and forever, any idea that the progressive Twitter outrage mob is a true representation of the Democratic electorate and get back to basics: Health care, the economy, and jobs.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently summed it up best when she begged progressives in the party to remember that what plays in deep-blue districts and what fires up the progressive base, is a loser in the swing states Democrats desperately need to win in 2020.
Every voting Democrat in America should be absolutely outraged.
Not at Donald Trump, not at Republicans; at leadership Democrats who have had three long years to come to terms with why Trump won in 2016 and make certain he doesn’t do so again in 2020.
Democrats have not done this.
Instead, they have wasted time with impeachment investigations that have gone nowhere and continue to go nowhere.
The Democratic field for President is awash in mediocrity and electability deal-breakers to the point that Hillary Clinton is being floated in some circles as a serious candidate.
The economy is in fantastic shape, but instead of passing the USMCA or doing literally anything else that might leave voters with the impression that Democrats had at least something to do with that success, Democrats are spending all their time ignoring, denying, and down-playing it.
People have noticed the improvements in the economy, and they will continue to notice them whether Democrats tell them to or not.
Instead, a great many eggs were put in the Russia basket.
Too much Democratic faith was placed in the ultimately disappointing Mueller investigation, in Saturday Night Live skits and Robert Mueller prayer candles and tee-shirts, in the tearful professions of Rachel Maddow and the empty promises of Rep. Adam Schiff. Both swore repeatedly that House Democrats had Donald Trump dead to rights.
Of course, when the dust settled, President Trump remained in office, where he remains to this day, Tweeting to his heart’s content.
How much did Democrats really damage Trump with Russia-gate and everything else they’ve tried to throw at him?
Let’s consider a telling moment from last night’s episode of “Jeopardy!”.
“Jeopardy!”, that long-running seminal quiz show hosted by Alex Trebek, is hosting its “Tournament of Champions” this week, which pits the best of the best contestants who have appeared on Jeopardy! throughout the year against each other.
On last night, was one of the all-time highest earning “Jeopardy!” contestants in history, James Holzhauer, and the contestant who finally managed to unseat Holzhauer after his 33-day, $2.5 million streak. The other contestant was a physics teacher. These people know everything. Like, everything.
The category was “Lawyers”; the question was “This attorney’s star rose when he represented Stormy Daniels but fell when he was accused of trying to extort millions from Nike in 2019.”
Crickets.
It should worry Democrats deeply that not one of these extremely smart, incredibly well-informed people had heard of Michael Avenetti. And Avenetti’s Trumpian mud-slinging, covered voraciously by the press, included the salacious words “porn star”.
Now, Democrats have again promised America that Trump is theirs at last. Yet, this latest series of impeachment inquiry revelations in the form of public hearings have instead laid bare the weaknesses of the Democratic case against Donald Trump.
After conducting a series of focus groups, Democrats have determined that the public responds best to the term “bribery”, as opposed to “quid pro quo” or other terms. This is why House Speaker Pelosi has switched to describing what President Trump did with respect to Ukraine as “bribery”.
At least this level of contrivance shows that Democrats are learning, though far too late, just how little patience the public at large has with convoluted theories and the intricate inner workings of the U.S. government and its foreign diplomatic policies.
Want proof? Trumps approval rating has risen with this latest impeachment debacle. Former Vice President and once Democratic front-runner Joe Biden’s, on the other hand, have tanked. Biden’s son getting $50,000 -$80,000 a month from a Ukrainian energy company that miraculously stopped being under investigation, is obviously something the public finds easier to understand, if objectionable.
Biden’s numbers have tanked even with mainstream media outlets assuring readers over and over that there was no wrong doing on the part of the Bidens. It has become such a problem, the Biden campaign is finally, if laboriously and badly, responding to the allegations with a dedicated website.
More proof? The Trump campaign raised $3.1 million dollars…yesterday.
Those donors are expressing their unwavering support for President Trump. Democratic donors, on the other hand, like Michael Bloomberg, are expressing a different sentiment. Bloomberg, and Obama protege Deval Patrick, entering the race at this late date is a vote of “no confidence” in any of the current candidates.
Deval Patrick would not be entering the race if former President Barack Obama had the slightest confidence in Joe Biden or any other current Democratic contender for Trump’s job.
So with this latest impeachment gambit dead on arrival to anyone who wasn’t already in the bag against Trump, and the current field of Democratic contenders so shaky, it would be helpful for Democrats if some of Trump’s economic policies were to fail horribly.
With this hopeful thought in mind, pundits and political prognosticators, and even a few economists with a Democratic bent, have been seeing signs of a coming recession for months now.
This week’s rosy Fed outlook for the next year should put pay to those dubious hopes once and for all.
Wall Street closed at record highs this week as well: The markets are hopeful for a trade breakthrough between the U.S. and China. It should be noted that the markets are not in any way fearful that House Democrats are going to remove the President.
It should also be noted that China would not be dealing with Donald Trump if they in any way thought he might be removed from office in the foreseeable future.
Record-low unemployment, substantial wage and income gains for both low-income and middle-class families, and more 401K millionaires than ever before are also very bad news for Democrats hoping to beat Trump in 2020.
Unless Democrats are willing to make themselves, again and anew, the party of the working-class, the little guy, the small business owner, the wage-earner, and the union, Donald Trump is going to surf the wave of these strong economic gains right over his atrocious Tweets to another four-years in the White House.
And unless Democratic progressives are willing to allow the Democratic Party to remain the inclusive Big Tent Party it was always meant to be- including pro-life Democrats, religiously conservative Democrats, and pro-border Democrats- the Democratic Party, as we know it, may be doomed.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)